Mars Curiosity about to really shake things up

FOLLOWING THE RECIPE:：The rover’s scoop is to dig into the sand, shake fine dust through its chemical testing system so as to cleanse it of Earth grease

AP, WASHINGTON

Sun, Oct 07, 2012 - Page 7

Mars Curiosity is about to take its first sip of the red planet’s sand. However, only after NASA’s rover plays bartender to make sure the dry dust is shaken, not stirred.

The rover’s scoop was scheduled to dig into the sand yesterday. Then the action starts. The end of the rover’s 100kg arm was to shake “at a nice tooth-rattling vibration level” for eight hours, like a Martian martini mixer gone mad, mission sampling chief Daniel Limonadi said.

“It kind of looks and feels like if you open the hood of your car with the engine running,” Limonadi said, making engine noises in a Thursday NASA telephone press conference.

EARTH GREASE

That heavy shaking will vibrate the fine dust grains through the rover chemical testing system to cleanse it of unwanted residual Earth grease. That is important for the sensitive scientific instruments that are the keystone to the US$2.5 billion mission that launched last year.

The rover landed in August and has traveled three-tenths of a mile, taking pictures and analyzing the Martian air.

For the next week or two, Curiosity will scoop, shake and dump sand out three times, like a robotic version of cleaning its mouth out with mouthwash, Limonadi said.

The fourth time, the rover will slowly pour “a half a baby aspirin pill of material” into the mobile lab to start a complex chemical analysis, he said.

BORING MARTIAN SAND

There is nothing that seems special about the sand that is to be tested and that is why NASA picked it out. It is good to start with “boring safe Martian sand dune,” Limonadi said.

The car-sized rover has a complex chemical lab, a scoop and a drill to look for the basic ingredients of life, including carbon-based compounds, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur and oxygen.

This would be the first time the chemistry lab is to be used. In about a month, after going to a newer more interesting location, the rover is sheduled start drilling into the ground for samples.